A Game of Greed and Deception: A Mystery Drama (11 page)

***

Tammy opened her eyes as some
sun shone through the windows in the den. It must be early morning she thought,
sitting up on the sofa bed. She glanced up right away at the cinder block and
saw that it was still balancing on top of the window ledge as she had left it.
The cardboard was still in place and the window slightly ajar.
Well darn, he didn’t try to come in here
last night. I was really hoping to squash that big head of his. I need to check
out the rest of the cabin.
She got out of bed, put on a pair of slippers,
and went into the living room. The front door was still closed and locked.
Sitting on the sofa, she lit up a cigarette and put her foot up on the coffee
table. She rolled up the leg of her pajamas to examine her injured leg, and
breathed a big sigh of relief to see that the wound indeed looked much better
than it had the day before.

As
Tammy lay back inhaling a puff of her cigarette, she noticed that the coffee
table had been moved out of position. Feeling puzzled, she stood up and saw
that it was turned around the other way and in an entirely different spot than
where she had left it. It was also not as well centered on top of the shag rug,
and Stephen’s lighter was lying on the floor.
Maria must have been out here fooling around with things. What the hell
would she be doing up so early? I dang told her to stay in her room and she
should still be sleeping.
Tammy picked up her cell phone and saw that there
was a message on her call waiting. She eagerly listened.

“Mrs.
Worthington, this is police officer Gerald Benson. I had some of my personnel
look all around the mountain side and area where your husband’s car was found.
The snow is really deep down there and they spent the last several hours
digging it out. We have not found any trace of your husband or any evidence of
foul play. In fact, it looks as if the car went over the mountain road
unoccupied. I am going to send an officer out to where you are just to make
sure that everything is all right and ask you a few more questions. Please call
me back as soon as possible.”

Tammy
set her phone down, feeling agitated.
Shit,
they are gonna send out an officer before too long. If Stephen finds them,
he’ll tell them what happened with the car and accuse me for sure. Then it’s
gonna be a big mess and his word against mine. But there will not be any proof
that I did anything wrong out here. If Stephen really thinks I tried to kill
him, he will have them investigate every damn thing I own. But I don’t really
think he wants to bring the police into it if he is stalking me here outside
the cabin. If he did, he woulda called them already himself. I think he wants
to punish me first.
She put out her cigarette and got up to go look for
Maria, but was startled by a sudden noise. Someone was knocking on the front
door of the cabin.

TEN

Tammy jumped up off the couch
with her heart racing and started towards the door.
Shit, I hope that’s the hunter and not the fucking police.
She
stood with her back close to the living room wall several feet from the door,
so that she could look through the front window without being seen. There was a
huge black man standing out on the front porch. He was about a foot taller than
she was, with a football player build, big round brown eyes, and some facial
hair.
Who in the hell is THAT? Fuck.
If they sent out a plain clothes detective,
I need to get him in and out as quickly as possible. I can’t tell him anything
about Stephen lurking outside the cabin.
“Who’s there?” she called out
meekly before opening the door.

A
deep, scratchy voice replied from outside. “Are you Tammy?”

“Yes
sir, I am.”

“My
name is Darnell. I was hired by Tom Murphy.”

“How
do you know Tom and what the hell are you doing here?”

“Please
let me in so I can explain everything to you in detail and tell you what
happened with our plan.”

Tammy
felt nervous and not sure of what to do. She spoke quietly through the door.
“But why are you here, Darnell? We were never supposed to meet. What if someone
saw you come up to the cabin?”

“Nobody
saw me come up here. I’ve been looking all ‘round these woods. I haven’t seen
nobody else out here, especially in this snowstorm. Please let me in so I can
explain some more things to you.”

Tammy
reluctantly opened the door and waved him inside. She was struck by the sheer
mass of this man who looked to be in his thirties. He had on a thick insulated
winter coat, a knit scarf and hat, and big, black snow boots. “Come with me
into the den, it’s more private. My stepdaughter is sleeping in one of the
bedrooms and I don’t want her to see you.” They went into the den, closed the
door, and had a seat on the sofa. Tammy crossed her legs and lit up a cigarette.
“So you’re the guy that Tom Murphy hired?”

“Yes
Ma’am. I got out here a just few days ago and had everything all set up. You
already know all about the plan. I had carefully rigged that guard rail to
break on impact. Then while you and your husband were eating at that
restaurant, I took care of the car. And I watched when you guys were walking
back to the cabin. Just before he came driving back down, I poured water all
over that sharp turn in the road. The cold air froze it immediately – slick as
glass I tell you. Everything shoulda gone just how we’d planned it.”

“So
then what in the hell happened?” Tammy sat up straight, looking Darnell square
in the eye. “How did Stephen get out of the dang car?”

Darnell
shrugged with a perplexed look. “I don’t really know. I was sitting in my
truck, but down the road a piece. I didn’t wanna be too close to the road when
the car went over. Then I heard the crash and everything. So I walked back down
the road and saw that the car went through the rail just as I’d set it up. I
saw it smoldering way down the mountainside. I thought everything was done and
drove my truck down the road to that small hotel. I stayed in the parking lot
for the night and was sleeping in the truck bed. I wasn’t ‘bout to drive all
the way down the mountain in the snow storm. After I woke up, Tom called me and
told me you said that Stephen wasn’t inside the car.”

Tammy
nodded emphatically. “Yes, that was right after the police had called me back.
They didn’t find a body anywhere around the car. In fact, they just left
another message and are going to send an officer out to talk to me. But the
worst part is, Stephen has been stalking me from outside the cabin and trying
to kill me!”

Darnell
leaned over towards Tammy. “Wait a moment – he’s trying to kill you? What’s he
been doing?”

“For
starters, he put a cinder block down the chimney right after I’d made a fire,
and the whole place filled up with smoke. And I think he’s been inside the
cabin at night while I’m sleeping. There was a booby trap full of spikes set up
in the wine cellar, covered with hay for me to fall into. And I found a knife
with blood stains. Also the water lines froze up and there is nothing to drink.
There has been one disaster after another, Darnell. I am telling you that I
think Stephen has plotted massive revenge against me. But how in the hell could
he escape from the car without getting injured? And where would he be staying
at night in this weather?”

Darnell
waited before responding, trying to take in all that Tammy had told him. “I
don’t know. After Tom called me, I went down the road again and drove all
‘round. I saw the guard rail was smashed apart and the car was still at the
bottom of the cliff. I couldn’t get out of the truck and risk being caught
looking ‘round here. You gotta remember Tammy that nobody knows that I got
anything to do with you. And the ice storm was so bad last night that I really
can’t get back down the mountain now. It’s too dangerous, even in a four by
four. I walked more than two miles up the road to come talk with you now.”

“Are
you sure that nobody saw you come out here? I found some crazy old guy living
off the land out in the woods. I don’t think that he ever leaves.”

“Where
did you see this guy and what did he look like? I didn’t see no one ‘round
these woods.”

“Out
past the row of pine trees along the right side of the cabin. There’s an empty
metal cage near a large tree trunk. Keep walking past that and you’ll find him.
He’s weird looking, wearing a long dirty coat, and walks with a limp.”

“From
the sound of it, he probably won’t matter that much anyways, but I’ll have a
look into it. Beyond that, I’m better off staying hidden.”

Tammy
leaned back with a puzzled look and let out a puff of smoke. “So what the hell
are we gonna do now?”

“I
think Stephen is gonna keep trying until he gets to you. He musta known ‘bout
the plan a long time ago. That’s ‘bout the only way he coulda been able to get
out of that car alive. But I think he wants to make your death seem like an
accident. Otherwise he woulda just come in and tried to kill you. So he must be
staying somewhere near here that he had scoped out so he’s able to come back
‘round when he needs to.”

“What
if he called the police and told them about my plot to kill him? Could he be
trying to torture and kill me OR turn me in?”

“I
highly doubt it. If he already knew ‘bout your plan, then he woulda been able
to frame you legally long ago. I think rather than plan out how to have the law
find you guilty, he wants you to suffer. He doesn’t want the police to come out
here until he’s had a chance to deal with you himself.”

Tammy
hesitantly nodded. “Ya, but I don’t think he could possibly be doing all of
this shit alone. Could someone else be helping him? I saw where someone set up
a bridge to climb on top of the roof, and there was an empty reptile cage back
in the woods. Where would Stephen have gotten all of these things? He isn’t
exactly the mechanical type.”

Darnell
raised his eyebrows, looking startled. “Well I don’t know that neither. But I
can’t imagine that anyone else is out here. I’ve been up and down that road and
walked all around here, and didn’t see or hear nothin’. I just think he had a
lot of things planned out long in advance. A man as important as that is not
gonna just wing it for this shit if you know what I mean. And he’s got you
trapped like a bug in a spider’s net. You can’t go nowhere now, and you can’t
tell shit to the police.”

“Obviously.
That bastard done thinks he can get me before I get him. Should I call the
police back and tell them that everything is fine?”

“Nah,
that will just seem fishy to them. You told me about a trap in the wine cellar.
Some kind of pit filled with spikes? I went online and did some investigating
of the history of this cabin – and you won’t believe what I discovered.”
Darnell took out a cigar and lit it with Tammy’s lighter.

“So
what exactly did you find out?” Tammy said eagerly.

Darnell
took a few puffs and leaned over more to look at Tammy directly. “This used to
be an old huntin’ cabin. It was built more than a hundred and fifty years ago
and was just three rooms with a wood stove and outhouse. Since then, they
remodeled it, and added on the bathrooms, kitchen, den, and whatnot. But back
in the day, people used to live in these mountains for long periods of time. They
would get isolated out here in the wintertime. They had to live off of the land
by huntin’ wild game. The original owner of the cabin used it to store up meat
in bulk when the huntin’ was good. Then he would salt and cure the meat to keep
it fresh. People came from all ‘round to buy his fresh meats before the winter
set in. He was running quite the business.”

“Ok,
so he hunted all through these woods around here. I already knew that. What
does that have to do with what is happening now?”

“Well,
one year, a group of outlaws came through and robbed him of all of his meats.
He was storing them all outside and in the night they took each and every one
of them. He lost more than six months worth of food for personal use and
business. He quickly became rather desperate and hungry. So what he done was he
hired a Negro worker to come and live in the cabin with him. The two of them
dug out a big basement full of tunnels and rooms underneath the cabin. He set
it up to store all of his meats inside, safe from thieves. But he also wanted
to punish anyone who tried to steal from him again. So he put in a lot of booby
traps and torture devices to catch anyone else that went down there.” Darnell
paused and puffed on his cigar. “But not just simple shit. He set up brutal torture
methods that date back to the Middle Ages. He had a real vengeful mind and
wanted people to suffer since he felt that he’d been wronged. He wanted that
basement to be his own little secret. I think that the trap you discovered in
the wine cellar must have come from that basement.”

Tammy
squirmed on the sofa, nervously grabbing for a Capris. She replied uneasily.
“So what happened after that? And where is this basement?”

“Well,
from what I understand, less than a year after he dug out those tunnels, a
couple of teenagers snuck down inside there, and each one met a terrible death.
They were caught in his traps and tortured and mutilated beyond recognition.
Then the owner started to get off on the thrill of torturing and killing. You
know, Tammy, he was one of those guys that got an idea in his head and then
decided to really go with it. So he went from just protecting his property to
being a cold-blooded killer.”

Darnell
sat back and paused for a moment to let Tammy take in all that he was telling
her. “So this dude started to lure more common folk to come up to his cabin and
buy his fresh meats. More and more people were disappearing. All of their
corpses were left decomposing down in that basement and not discovered until
many years later. Once the owner was finally caught that property went up for
auction. The basement was sealed off permanently and the cabin was left empty
for decades.”

“That’s
some crazy damn story. But if the basement was sealed off, then what happened…”

“Wait,
I’m not finished yet – there’s more. When the owner got caught, he tried to
bribe the authorities to let him go. He said that he’d traveled by wagon south
along the mountain ranges into the
Apishipa
Valley
to a place known today as Las
Animas,
Colorado
.
He went there to find a buried treasure of pure gold. This is now known as the
Arapaho Princess Treasure. It was a huge load of 50-pound gold bars that were
being transported by Spaniards across the mountains in the early 1800’s. They
got attacked by a Native American tribe, and had to hide all of their gold.
Knowing they couldn’t escape with all the weight of this gold, they buried it
in this area, Las Animas. They said that they buried it some 300 feet from a
large rock that looked like a doll, called Muneca. The Spaniards were all
killed by the tribe and the gold was never recovered.”

Tammy
smirked and let out a big, smoke-filled breath. “So let me guess – the guy said
he found the location of the gold and wanted the cops to go with him to get it
so that he could make his escape?”

Darnell
shook his finger. “No, no. He told the authorities that he found the buried
treasure, and with the help of his Negro worker, hauled a bunch of it back to
his cabin. He said that he hid it down in the basement in a place that nobody
else could find it. So he said that if they come down there with him to
retrieve it, he will make them rich. But nobody would believe him and they just
took him into custody. He got hanged at high noon in front of a small crowd of
locals. I think they were scared of what could be waiting for them in those
tunnels. So to this day the treasure was never found and nobody knows if he was
telling the truth or not. The ownership has changed hands a couple of times
since then until the current owner bought the land to fix up and rent the cabin
out to tourists. So if Stephen set up a trap for you, then he must have found
it down in the basement. I don’t know where the entrance is since it was
supposed to have been sealed off a long time ago.”

“And
so do you think that he is hiding down there? How the hell am I gonna find out
where it is? I done found this map here in the den. It shows these dotted lines
for rooms that are not in the cabin. That must be the basement, don’t you
think?”